Jay Bothroyd has paid a glowing tribute to his former Arsenal FA Youth Cup-winning team-mate Niccolo Galli ahead of the 20th anniversary of his tragic passing.
Bothroyd and Galli were key players as Arsenal won the FA Youth Cup in 2000, beating Coventry City 5-1 on aggregate in the final.
Galli, the son of former AC Milan and Italy goalkeeper Giovanni Galli, was regarded as one of the best young players in Europe at the time.
However, less than a year later, Niccolo tragically died in a road accident in Italy while on loan at Bologna. He was just 17.
On Tuesday, it will be the 20th anniversary of Galli’s passing.
Arsene Wenger, who signed Galli in 1999 from Fiorentina, has said of his former pupil: “I have no doubt in my mind that had he lived, he would have been captain of Arsenal and of Italy.”
And when asked about his own memories of Galli, Bothroyd echoed Wenger’s sentiments.
“I agree with that,” Bothroyd told The Italian Football Podcast in an interview discussing his 20-plus years as a professional footballer.
“It’s funny as I remember when he first came. He came to England with such an attitude. He was in the gym before training, stretching out, doing weights and all this stuff.
“And we were looking at him thinking, ‘what’s this guy doing, man?!’
“We were just kicking the ball around, mucking about, playing table tennis, playing computer games. And this guy is in the gym doing core stability and weights. And we were looking at that thinking ‘this guy is so boring!’
“But he was such a nice guy. And he was such a good player.
“At the time we were 16, 17 years old. We looked at it like, ‘does this guy have a life?’ because I only ever saw him stretching and on the football pitch and then he went home.
“He never came out for drinks. He never did any of that. He was 100 per cent focused all the time on being a great professional. Even at that age he was a great professional.
“He was a fantastic player. He was aggressive, he was quick, strong, he had good distribution. He was our key player. He was a permanent centre back. Everyone else got rotated, but he was the permanent one. He was probably the best centre back in the country at his age.
“It was tragic to hear what happened and God bless him. I really enjoyed playing with him.”
Bothroyd himself left Arsenal shortly after the FA Youth Cup success to join Coventry City, following a bust-up with youth team coach Don Howe.
He would go on to enjoy success in Serie A with Perugia, and play in the Premier League for the likes of Blackburn, Charlton and Queens Park Rangers, as well as being capped for England while at Cardiff.
At the age of 38, he is still playing top-level football in Japan for Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo.
